This invention relates to the feeding of envelopes to a printing press, and more particularly to a novel method and envelope feeder which, although it is independent of the printing press, delivers envelopes to the printing press at a rate determined by the rate of operation of the printing press.
Envelope feeders of the prior art are characterized by a construction which requires positive coupling to the drive mechanism of the printing press in order to synchronize the rate of delivery of envelopes to the press to the rate of movement of envelopes through the press. This requires significant structural variations in the feeder to accommodate use with various types and models of printing presses of diverse manufacture. This requirement contributes to excessive cost of manufacture of the feeders and to excessive cost of print production due to the time required to couple and uncouple the feeder and printing press.